


Doctor's Orders

by lavieboheme0919



Series: Three is Not a Crowd [8]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Anal Sex, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, BAMF Chris Argent, BAMF Laura Hale, Bad Parenting, Barebacking, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Happy Ending, False Accusations, Felching, Foursome - M/M/M/M, Gaslighting, Good Peter Hale, Happy Ending, Homophobic Language, Hospitalization, I promise, Incest, Injury Recovery, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Past Rape/Non-con, Peter and Talia's parents are assholes, Peter had a hard life, Physical Abuse, Polyamory, Protective Siblings, Reconciliation, Repressed Memories, Stabbing, Starvation, Uncle/Nephew Incest, You Have Been Warned, You might cry, graphic description of child abuse, graphic use of homophobic rhetoric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 22:23:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11240493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavieboheme0919/pseuds/lavieboheme0919
Summary: *** HEAVILY REFERENCES PREVIOUS EVENTS IN THIS SERIES***In the aftermath of Peter's attack and Derek's confession, Talia must confront several truths that she does not want to face about her son, about her brother, about her parents, and about herself. This rips open old emotional wounds for Peter as he's still recovering from the physical wounds. The entire relationship that Peter, Chris, Stiles, and Derek have built together hangs in the balance.Please read the tags and the notes.





	Doctor's Orders

**Author's Note:**

> As noted in the tags, there is a graphic depiction of past child abuse as well as horrifically homophobic language, enough so that it might be triggering. Skimming past that part will not, in any way, diminish the story if it is something that you cannot handle.

Talia Hale stared expressionlessly at her comatose brother. She was torn between the older sister within who wanted nothing more than for her brother to get better and the mother within her who wanted to rage against him for having had sex with her son. She didn't care that Derek was an adult. She didn't care that it had been consensual. Both of those things just made it worse in her mind. They both knew what they were doing and did it anyway.

"Did you know?" she asked her brother-in-law, the only other person in the room.

"Know what?" Chris asked.

She took a deep, steadying breath. She didn't want to make a scene in the hospital. Talia Hale was nothing if not proudly dignified. "That Peter and Derek were… _intimate_ ," she said, spitting the last word out as if it were a rotted piece of food. Her imperious gaze moved from her brother to his husband.

"Yes," Chris said softly, his tone and demeanor matching his sister-in-law's. "I knew about it." This really did not come as a surprise to her. It would have been more surprising if he hadn't. "It wasn't something they entered into lightly, Tal. They talked about the implications and possible repercussions of what they were doing. They agreed it was extremely complicated, but in the end, they decided that love was more important." He let a beat of silence pass before adding, "They do love each other, Talia… and a very deep and profound way."

Talia forced herself to keep a measured tone. "Plenty of nephews and uncles love one another and don't fuck each other. You should have stopped it, Chris." More accusatorily, she said, "Is it safe to assume that you participated?"

Chris only nodded.

Tears brimmed Talia's eyes and she did her best to hold them back. She snatched a tissue out of the box on Peter's bedside and dabbed her eye. Some of her mascara rubbed off onto the tissue. "You realize what an impossible position I'm in, don't you?"

"I know this can't be easy, Talia. Really, I do," Chris said. "But do you honestly think Peter or I would do anything to hurt Derek? Even if I hadn't been complicit in it, they're two grown men. If they wanted to make love, I wasn't going to be able to stop them, anyway."

"Make love? Peter is his uncle! Derek is my little boy. I'm supposed to protect him," Talia said through a choked sob.

"But now he's an adult. He made an adult decision to do an adult thing," Chris said. "But what they have, Talia… it's pure and it's honest. Expressing your disapproval to either one of them will do nothing but drive them closer together. You Hales were always a defiant bunch. They love each other, just leave it alone."

"It's wrong, Chris," she said plainly.

"Uncles and nieces were married by arrangement for centuries. I'm not sure how this is so different except that they're both guys… and they actually are choosing this," Chris argued.

"Peter is my baby brother," Talia said. "I was supposed to stand up for him and I didn't. I let my parents drove him further and further away because I thought interfering would make it worse. They did unspeakable things and I didn't try and help him. I was a terrible big sister. I've tried so hard since then to make up for it… to be the sister Peter deserves. But now, I wonder if I shouldn't have let him into our lives…"

Chris balled his fist in anger. "No!" he said loudly. "No. He loves you, Talia. He loves being an uncle. If you're willing to rip all of that away from him then you're just as terrible a monster as your parents were." Chris was seething in his rage. "I have a general policy of not speaking ill of the dead, but if I were to apply it here, I would never be able to talk discuss your parents at all." He was on his feet. He looked from Talia's angry face to Peter's peaceful, sleeping one. "I can't describe the look on his face when he found out he was going to meet your children. He was so excited to be an uncle. He obsessed over it for weeks. Then when you said they could be in the wedding… It was magical, Talia, to see him so happy and—"

Talia cut him off. "That's when it started, you know," she said. "I promised Derek I'd never tell anyone this… but on the way to your ceremony, he asked me if the priest still asks about objections—I think he'd seen a wedding in a movie or something—and I said yes. He asked if he could object so that Peter could marry him instead of you. When I said no, he cried for at least an hour. At the time, I didn't think it was anything more than idle hero worship."

Chris was hearing that story for the first time and made his fondness for Derek grow just a bit more. He could picture eight-year-old Derek scheming to have a chance to marry the uncle he'd fallen in love with the moment their eyes first met.

"And that kind of love… that innocent, pure, come-as-you-are sort of love is what Derek shares with all of us. You didn't see the emotional and psychological damage your parents and Duke inflicted on Peter. They did their very best to make sure he didn't have one shred of self-esteem left. He didn't know how to love. He let people do whatever they wanted to him physically, just so long as they didn't get close to his heart. Duke took advantage of that. He fed on Peter's warped notions of what love was… sending him to the hospital on many occasions with broken bones… or concussions. He won't admit it but I believe Duke raped him several times. And he thought that was all he deserved. He didn't think he could aspire to more."

His glare was directed at her. "But by some miracle," he continued, "he let me in and we started to put him back together. And after a _lot_ of trial and error, he found Stiles and a bit more of him came back. And after we reconciled with Stiles, Derek was the final missing piece. He is his best self when he has the people he can let in. I've always liked you, Talia. But if you undo all of the growth he's made in the last twenty years, not even God will be able to help you."

Chris wasn't aware that he'd begun shouting or that his hands had begun to shake in anger. A nurse came in to check if everything's alright. Talia waved her away, assuring that it was. "Keep your voice down. We don't need the entire wing knowing about this."

"Why not?" Chris asked, throwing his hands out. "Who the fuck actually cares? Let me fill you in on some aspects of our marriage you've not been around to witness. After the wedding, when we were in bed, he sobbed for hours because your parents really chose not to attend their only son's wedding. He'd still had faith that they could be decent human beings, even after everything they did to him.

"Then over the next twenty years, I watched him bring a steady stream of guys into our house, date them a bit, and leave them, trying to find another missing piece of himself. Then came Stiles," Chris continued. "Peter treasured him. Their connection was so strong… and on a level that I couldn't begin to comprehend. I fell in love with him too, so he became a part of our marriage. You saw how miserable Peter was after he sent Stiles away. Your son helped keep Stiles alive. Derek put Stiles back together and they fell in love. But it wasn't enough. He saw two men that he loved _so_ much and they were so miserable. He had to try and reunite them, even if it meant his heart got broken in the process. Derek is a good man. You did a good job raising him. It wasn't hard for us to fall in love with him the way he loved Peter and Stiles."

"Why are you telling me this, Christopher?"

"Because I want you to know who you really should blame. I have a feeling you might get a kick out of this one." Chris' voice was acidic enough to melt iron. "I was the one who started things with Derek. Me. Derek and I kissed, and then I had sex with him." Talia winced. Chris worded the next part very intentionally. "When your son and your brother made love, Stiles and I both saw the final part of Peter's heart go back in place. That part of him that had been buried and forgotten because of years of abuse… The part that two decades with me still couldn't fix. The first time he and Derek made love was the first time that broken boy I married wasn't broken anymore. Peter only loves the men who can fill the gaps in him that I can't. It wasn't easy for me to accept that about my husband, but the people he chose were the most amazing men I've ever met. We all love each other, Talia. We support each other." He took a deep breath before looking at her again. "Isn't that all a mother wants for her child? That he grows up to be a good person and find a relationship that uplifts and affirms him? He's done both of that. You did your job as a mother. Don't ruin it by taking that away from him."

* * *

Since his mom and sisters had taken over his Manhattan apartment, Derek went to the house on Long Island instead. He couldn't be in the same room with Peter and his mother. He only visited Peter when Chris texted that Talia was gone. He was constantly exhausted.

Stiles was afraid for him. He packed a bag of clothes to bring to Chris on their next visit and then went to the doorway of Peter's bedroom and watched Derek, clutching his uncle's pillow to his chest, sobbing. "I'm heading back to the hospital," Stiles said softly. "You should come with me."

"What if mom's there?" he asked.

"So what if she is?" Stiles replied. "We don't need to hide what we have anymore. It's all out in the open."

"I shouldn't have said anything," he cried. "I should have kept my mouth shut but he was dying and… I was afraid—"

Stiles cut him off. "I know, Derek I know. But he had already been resuscitated before you reached the chapel. He's getting a little better every day and the doctors are going to be removing some of the life support stuff because he doesn't need it. He's coming back to us, Der. He's getting better and you still love him the same way you did before. The fact that you're still so torn up proves it."

"We can't be together like that anymore…"

"Why not? Because God is going to punish you? Derek, you and Peter are two of the most selfless men I have ever known. You are both loving and kind to a fault. Why shouldn't you be together?" Stiles replied. Derek only buried his face in the pillow. Stiles frowned, but still gently approached him and laid a kiss on his neck, which was the only bit of skin available for him to kiss. "Please come to the hospital later."

He grabbed the bag of Chris' clothes and headed toward the door. As he opened it, he was surprised to see Laura standing there. It was clear she had been summoning the courage to ring the doorbell or knock. "Hi," she said simply.

"Hey," Stiles said. "I'm heading back to the hospital so Chris can change clothes."

"Good," Laura said, making small talk. "He needed fresh clothes. Is Derek here?"

"Yeah he's upstairs in Peter's room," Stiles said.

She lowered her voice. "Is it true he and Uncle Peter had sex?"

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Yes. It's true. But if you're gonna make judgements on him for it, you can just leave."

Laura shook her head. "Oh no! No that's not what I meant at all. To be honest, I'm glad it finally happened," she admitted much to Stiles' shock.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Has Derek ever told you the story about how he got a broken nose?" Laura asked.

"I think so. You were playing a game of basketball and you threw the ball and he caught it with his face," Stiles replied.

Laura chuckled at that simplification. "He only caught it with his face because he was ogling Uncle Peter while he took off his shirt. He also fucked every guy in my school named Peter. I'm not dumb, I put two and two together."

Stiles smiled at hearing this added bit of information. "I was unaware of that…"

"I think both mom and Derek are blowing this thing out of proportion. I was hoping to talk some sense into him," Laura said.

"Oh by all means then," Stiles said as he stepped aside. "Please do!" He gave her directions to Peter's bedroom and headed to the car to make the journey into the hospital.

Laura ascended the stairs and saw her brother lying in an unmade bed, clutching his pillow. His body shook with the tiny tremors of grieving sobs. "Derbear," she said. She was the only one who ever used this nickname She had given it to him when he was a baby.

Derek raised his head and saw his older sister. "If you're here to lecture me about it, go away."

Laura shook her head. "So you and Uncle Peter boned. Who the hell cares?"

"I care," Derek replied. "It wasn't just boning. We made love. I love him, Laura… he's not just my uncle. He's my boyfriend, too."

"Good," Laura said. "I'm glad it was meaningful. You've been in love with Uncle Peter your whole life. Uncle Peter has a thing for younger men who worship him. It was only a matter of time."

"You're alright with this?" Derek asked, clearly bewildered. "You knew about how I felt?"

"You bombarded our mother with questions about him constantly. In your journal, you referred to Uncle Chris as 'The Intruder' for a decade," Laura said. "And there wasn't a single guy named Peter in our school or college that you didn't sleep with. The math wasn't that difficult to follow. I was honestly surprised it didn't happen when he visited for your 18th birthday."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Derek asked. "Maybe if you said something mom would have gotten me counseling or something and none of this would be happening."

"How many times do we have to tell you… this wasn't your fault," Laura said. "And Uncle Peter needs you. I'll run interference mom. He needs the men he loves at his side if he's going to get through this. Get up, get showered, and get dressed. Your boyfriend needs you. And you're my baby brother. I want you to be happy. If you're happy with Uncle Peter, I'm fine with that."

* * *

Her first time seeing Peter and Derek in the same room found Talia with severe nausea. Despite her greatest efforts to the contrary, she couldn't help but to think of the way they might have kissed and touched one another and it made her skin crawl. The silences were deafening and Derek did everything he could not to look in his mother's direction.

Slowly the doctors and nursing staff were able to remove the various machines that were keeping Peter alive as his body grew strong enough to perform these functions without help. After a month had passed, they stopped administering the drug that kept him in a coma. It was now a matter of time until he woke up. Nobody wanted to miss the event.

He had been moved to a regular hospital room with only one bed, so that all of them could be there as much as possible. Occasionally, Peter would move or twitch, prompting a flutter of excitement, hoping this would be the time he woke.

When he did wake at last, it was Derek he saw first and Derek whose name he said. His voice was coarse like sandpaper from nonuse and still weak. "Derek?" he rasped.

"Peter!" Derek cried, rushing to him. "Uncle Peter, I'm right here." In that moment he didn't care that his mother was there. He cared that Peter had finally woken up. He caressed the side of Peter's face and kissed his forehead, nose, and cheeks. "You're awake," he said as tears of joy fell from his face onto his uncle's.

He struggled to get the next words out. "You… saved…. me…."

"Of course I saved you," Derek replied. "I love you."

He leaned as far as he could to kiss Derek gently on the lips. When it broke, Derek awkwardly stepped back from the bed, revealing that Talia, Laura, and Cora were also there. Chris and Stiles stood on the other side of the bed. Their hands had clasped together nervously and they shared uneasy glances. It was one thing for Talia to be told that her son and her brother were involved in a romantic and sexual relationship. It was a wholly different thing to see it in person.

Chris was the next to give Peter a welcome back kiss, though he placed his on Peter's forehead. Stiles went next, taking Peter's hand, the one that didn't have all sorts of IVs and other equipment on it, and brought it to his lips, kissing his boyfriend's fingers and knuckles.

A doctor came in and spent time checking for memory loss and reflexes. He did a once-over on the external wounds, all of which were healing nicely. He gave Peter a Cliff's Notes version of his recovery timeline. There was a high likelihood of scarring and he might have tightness in that area even after the healing was done. Derek, Chris, and Stiles didn't care. All of them thought the scars told an important story about what a fighter he was. They did, however, worry about how Peter's vanity would take it.

When the doctor left the room at last, Talia finally spoke. "I'd like to have a conversation with my brother," she said flatly. Everyone tensed. "Derek, if you would stay?"

"Talia, he just woke up!" Chris warned.

"Mom, this really isn't the time or place!" Laura cut in, but Talia put her hand up, cutting her off.

"Please just do as I ask. I'll only be a few minutes."

Chris had to force Stiles out the door, but shot an imperious glare at his sister-in-law. "Do not think for one second that my warning was in vain," he said in a way that frightened Stiles and the two Hale sisters. Even Talia seemed to recoil.

When it was just Peter, Derek, and Talia left in the room, Peter tried to lighten the mood. He wasn't entirely sure why everything was so tense. He looked down at his abdomen, the bandages covering the 18 knife wounds spattered across it. "Mom and dad would be so proud," he said through his still-gravelly voice. "I'm finally holy."

Derek choked back laughter, covering his face with his hand. It was the first time he had smiled since the attack.

Talia did not find it amusing and cut to the matter at hand. "Something has come to light since you were attacked, Peter. Something we need to discuss."

If he hadn't still been drugged, he would have known immediately what she was referring to. But he was still hazy from the pain killers and gave a confused, "What?"

"I know that you've been _violating_ my son," she said.

"Mom… no!" Derek cut in. "He isn't _violating_ me. He and I have a loving consensual sexual and romantic relationship. There's no violation."

The heart monitor rose in pace. "Talia, you seriously think I would violate your son?"

Talia shook her head, raising her hands in frustration. "How am I supposed to accept this? I understood the Stiles thing because he's a nice kid and he's good for you. He's great with Derek. I was even able to get behind the idea that Stiles was dating both of you. What you're now asking me to accept is simply too much. I don't even know where to begin!"

"I'm sure you have questions, Tal," Peter said softly. "Ask them. I'll answer them honestly. I'm too drugged up to lie anyway."

"How long have you had sexual feelings for my son?" she asked sharply.

"Since the first time he sucked my cock," Peter replied bluntly.

Talia winced. "Must you be so crude?" The corners of Derek's mouth curled into a smile. He knew he shouldn't have found Peter's response so amusing, but couldn't help it. "What about before that? During the times you visited us?"

Peter's brow furrowed angrily. "Jesus Christ, Tal! I'm not a fucking pedophile. My love of Derek was strictly that of an uncle and a nephew until he asked to escalate things further. I told him that at any point, if it got weird or it would ruin our relationship to stop… I care about him. I've cared about him his whole life, but I never even considered sex until a few months ago."

That response seemed to calm her worst fears. "Did you know about his unhealthy obsession with you growing up?"

"I found out about it after he and I first had sex," Peter admitted. "He told me himself. I was flattered, but it wouldn't have changed how I felt about him when he was a kid. And Talia… the fact that you would think that about me… you're just like mom and dad."

Talia gasped as if he'd slapped her. She knew how much he reviled their parents and the comparison stung. "I'm nothing—"

Peter cut her off. "No, Talia, you are. I'm willing to bet my next three morphine doses that Chris and Derek have already told you it was completely consensual… and yet you still came in and accused your brother, Peter-the-deviant-family-faggot-Hale of being a child molester." Tears rolled down his cheeks. "And it was so easy for you to think that about me, Tal. How else am I supposed to interpret that? From my own sister…"

A lump formed in Talia's throat. He was right. She had heard it straight from Derek and again from Chris that this was a new thing and she accused him of pedophilia. "He's my son, Peter. I have to protect him," she said through a choked voice.

"I was your baby brother and you never protected me!" Peter shouted. The heart monitor started to rise. "It would have been too inconvenient for you to get in trouble for sneaking me food on the weekends I was locked up in my room, hungry and unable to join the family for meals. It would have hurt your reputation to step in when dad was holding me against the wall by my throat screaming at me about how worthless I was." The floodgates of repressed memories of the abuse he'd endured as a child had opened. "Where was _protective Talia Hale_ when I almost drowned in the pool because saving me would have meant that mom had to put down her vodka and Valium martini for five seconds? Where was their duty to protect me? The counselors and therapists made me think I was crazy and imagined those things! Admit it! You had a chance to help me. You could have told them what was happening. Instead you said it was all lies I was telling to get attention."

Derek was horrified by the accusations being levied at his mother. "Mom? Is this true?"

"Tell him, Talia!" Peter screamed. The heart monitor was going insane. Nurses, Chris, and Stiles rushed in to find Peter pointing at his sister, his face crimson in rage. "Tell your son how you looked into my eyes as dad beat me so bloody he had to get rid of the carpets in the den and you just turned away."

"Mr. Hale, you need to calm down," the nurse said, rushing to his side. Talia ran from the room down the hall, she turned a corner and leaned against a wall, sobbing as she slid down it. She tried to cover her face with her hands. She hated crying in front of her children.

The truth was that Peter was right. It didn't shock her that his first relationship was abusive because that's all he had known growing up. None of it had ever been directed at Talia. In her parents' eyes, she could do no wrong. But Peter didn't realize that early on, she _had_ tried to intervene and it only made things worse for him. She vowed protected him by staying out of it. When the counselors asked if Peter's allegations were true, she said no. She had been terrified of what her father might do to him if she said yes. She didn't know that there were laws in place to protect children. She had been unknowingly complicit in the gaslighting and abuse of her little brother.

Her parents tried to make him seem like he was crazy, imagining it or that it was just really vivid nightmares. The nightmares thing was partly true in the realest and saddest possible sense. From very early on, Diana and Charles Hale made it clear that they had only ever wanted one child. Peter was the _mistake_. Their Catholic beliefs were the only thing that had prevented her mother from aborting him. They were stuck with this extra child they didn't want… and they made sure he knew it. They unjustly punished him for the crime of having been conceived.

* * *

_In the first few years of Peter's life, Talia fed him and changed him, as if he were her baby doll. Her parents simply couldn't have been bothered by it and it wouldn't have been done if she hadn't stepped up. She helped him walk for the first time. She taught him to say their names as his first words. During his first few years of life, Talia hid him from their parents' sight and therefore from their wrath._

_As he grew, however, her ability to protect and provide for him waned and the abuse began. Her father's rage was always aimed at him, no matter whose fault it was. Peter endured beatings until blood ran from his backside. Several times, Charles shaved his head to humiliate him. Still, Peter loved them. They were his parents. He posited that if he could just be better… if he could just not fuck up, maybe his parents would love him too. It never registered in his mind that they were incapable of loving him. He became numb. He resented his sister. He started acting out, provoking his father because the pain and the fear he felt… at least he felt something._

_When Talia grew up and started having children of her own, her parents doted on them. They loved her children and the handsome man who had fathered them. Because it was Talia, their perfect daughter who could do no wrong, they didn't even care that the children were born out of wedlock. It had been a special request from them that her children take the last name Hale._

" _It's going to die out, if not," her father, Charles, said._

" _What about Peter? He can pass the name on."_

" _Oh sweetheart," Diana said. "If Peter stops getting sodomized by the entire East Village in New York, who would breed with him at all? A prostitute, no doubt. His children will become drug-addicted delinquents and criminals. We can't rely on him to carry on the family name. We need respectable Hales to continue our family name."_

_Talia should have said something then. But she didn't. Her children's father died suddenly while Talia was still pregnant with Cora. The abruptness of it… the pain and the tragedy… having to look into her beautiful daughter's eyes to tell her that daddy was never coming home. The deep denial of her ever-hopeful son… Derek refused to believe it and slept on the front porch in a sleeping bag with a flashlight, ready to be able to greet his dad when he came back. After three months of this, he finally rolled his sleeping bag back up and trudged it inside._

" _Der? You're not going to sleep outside tonight?" she asked softly._

" _What's the use," the boy said. His face filling with despair and sadness as he cried for the first time since she'd told him. "He's really not coming back."_

_This was the moment she realized she needed to fix things with Peter. Steven's death had been sudden and accidental. What if Peter died that way too? She hated the idea that he might think she felt the same way about him that her parents did. She couldn't let him die without knowing that she loved him… that she missed him._

_When the wedding invitations arrived in the mail shortly after Derek's eighth birthday, she opened and giddily read hers aloud. "Peter Anthony Hale and Christopher Alexandre Argent request your attendance as they enter into marriage."_

_Charles scoffed. "The nerve of that boy… inviting us to a fag marriage!" Red with rage, he shredded the invite in his hands._

" _Dad! You have to go… your only son is getting married! You never got to walk me down the aisle, Steven died before we could get married," Talia pleaded._

" _He should be ashamed of himself," Charles snapped. "When I was his age, we would take faggots like him and beat them to a pulp. Show them what it's like to be a real man. I was too lenient on him when he was young. I should have done more to beat that illness out of him. I cannot believe I raised a faggot for a son!"_

" _Do not call him that!" Talia said dangerously. "He is your son. You will treat him with the respect he deserves."_

_In answer, Charles Hale spat on the shredded remnants of his invite. He stared into his daughter's eyes. "If your brother had one ounce of respect for this family, he'd drop dead of AIDS. I won't tolerate you exposing my grandchildren to him! You know how impossible he was when he lived here. He's going to corrupt your kids and make them turn out just like he did," Charles said. "Mark my words."_

_Talia was horrified. "Don't worry, Dad. I'll keep my children away from the most corruptive, toxic member of this family," Talia said, gathering her children into the car and leaving. Talia argued daily with her father until the wedding, but true to her word, she kept her children away from him their grandparents for the remainder of their lives._

_The first time Talia saw her brother again, she felt so much trepidation. She held so much guilt about how things had happened in their childhood. But Peter ran to her, hugged her tightly, and lifted her off the ground, swinging her as if they were dancing. "I've missed you so much Talia," he said._

" _I've missed you too, Peter," she sobbed, believing in that moment that all had been forgiven._

* * *

It all had _not_ been forgiven. It had been forgotten, just repressed by the years of hard work it had taken to allow himself to love.

"Mom… the things that Uncle Peter said… are they true?" Cora asked. She and her siblings had followed their mother.

"It's more complicated than that, Cora. There are things that you don't know," Talia said. "But yes, there were times when I should have helped and I didn't because I was afraid."

Derek stared at her. "You always told us to be brave and stand up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves…"

"Because I knew the effect of not standing up for those people," Talia said. "It eats at you." She placed her hand affectionately against the side of her son's face. "A parent's best hope is that they raise children who are better people than they were. I'm so glad I raised you three. You're much braver than I ever was."

"You don't get to wallow in self-pity right now, mom. Not while Uncle Peter is in a hospital room recovering from a fuckload of knife wounds. Don't make Derek and Uncle Peter break up," Laura said. "If you want to start fixing the things you did wrong, start today. Put his well-being first. He needs Derek as much as he needs Stiles and Uncle Chris."

"You're right," she said softly, rising to her feet. "Derek, I'm so sorry."

Derek wasn't sure how to react. Instead, he hugged his mom tightly. When the hug broke, Talia moved to the door of Peter's room. Chris and a large male nurse were standing there.

"If you're going to upset him, I'll have security escort you out and file a restraining order," Chris warned.

Talia shook her head. "No, I've got a lot of apologizing to do. Can I have a few minutes alone with my baby brother?"

Chris nodded. He stuck his head in the door. "If you need anything, Peter. Press the button. We'll have her removed."

Talia didn't know how to compose herself. That was not something she was used to. She approached her little brother's bedside. He glared out the window, refusing to look her way. Timidly, she reached out to grab his hand. He snatched it back. "Go away, Talia."

"Peter, I don't know what to say," she began.

"You could try 'I'm leaving,'" he offered, stubbornly.

"I am so sorry, Peter," she said. "For everything. I should have done more. I should have spoken up. I didn't."

"Why?" he asked, his voice cracking. "Why did you let it keep happening to me?" His heart monitor began to beep more frequently.

"Do you remember what I called you until you were seven?" she asked him.

Peter tried to remember. It was so long ago that he had difficulty. "Wasn't it baby doll or something like that?"

"Yeah," Talia replied with a sad smile. "I was the one who fed you and bathed you. I changed your diapers and rocked you to sleep at night. People always thought it was so cute when we'd be in public and I'd tell them that you were _my_ baby. But in a way, you were."

"I don't remember any of that," Peter remarked.

"I wouldn't expect you to," Talia replied honestly. "I knew that if I didn't take care of you, our parents wouldn't have."

"Why did you tell everyone I was lying?" Peter asked in a small voice.

"Because I was afraid for you," she said softly. "The first time I tried to stand up for you, it made Dad angry and he beat you ten times harder. I thought I was doing the right thing, Peter. I really did. When the counselors asked if there was anything going on, I was almost certain that if I said yes, you wouldn't survive that beating." She cried timidly attempted to hold her brother's hand once more. "I was afraid for you, Peter. I didn't know that what they were doing was illegal. I didn't know that I said yes, you would have been put somewhere safe… somewhere away from them." She let out a choked sob. "I regret that decision so much, Petey."

Peter's gaze moved over to his sister. She called him that when she tried to comfort him as a kid. When he was so wracked with pain from the beating he endured that he couldn't move or talk… she'd rub lidocaine lotion on his blistered skin as he trembled. She always called him 'Petey' and told him that it would be alright as she held him close and let him cry.

"When I became a parent, it made me reflect on the decisions I made when it came to your safety. I knew it was far too late, but that I still had to stand up to dad. Mom was so out of it on Valium that I'm not even sure she knew who I was," Talia admitted. "When Dad ripped up your invite and called you _that awful word_ , I used the one bargaining chip I had. He didn't see my children ever again. Not even when he was on his death bed and begging for it. I didn't even show him photographs. It was the only way I could punish him."

"Do you want to know what I said when Chris told me that Dad died?" Peter asked her. He didn't wait for a response. " _It's about fucking time_. I didn't grieve him. I celebrated the fact that he was dead. I hoped there was a Hell because he deserved it."

"I wasn't shocked that you didn't attend the funeral," she said. "It wasn't something I ever expected."

This was where Peter had his own secret, one that not even Chris knew. He had flown to California the day of the funeral. Under cover of darkness, he'd snuck into the cemetery and found his father's freshly-filled grave. The headstone hadn't even been placed yet. He looked around to ensure he was alone, then he unzipped his pants, pulled out his dick, and pissed. Every time he went to California to visit Talia and the kids after that, he'd drive up to the cemetery and make sure to water his parents' graves.

"It has taken me so long to become a normal person, Talia. When I went to college, I had such a warped idea of what love is that when my first boyfriend hit me or punched me or—" he stopped short of saying _raped me_. To this day, he had not been able to speak of that. He had only ever referred to it as 'rough sex.' To call it by its real name just gave him additional and unnecessary pain. "I would never hurt Derek," he said finally.

"I know," she replied softly. "Take care of my baby boy. He fell in love with you the moment he first laid eyes on you."

* * *

Settling back into a routine at home took a bit of adjustment. Peter had to go through physical therapy and a plastic surgeon had taken great care to minimize the potential for scarring. The internal trauma would require long-term monitoring, but Peter was happy to be out of the hospital and home with the men he loved. He, however, was not so pleased with the doctor's warning that he should probably not do any strenuous activity for a while… including sex.

Peter quickly grew tired of the way in which the three of them seemed to pamper him. "I can do some things for myself, you know," he grumbled. He would have enjoyed this maybe a little more if there were some sexually subservient undertones. Without them, it was just fucking annoying.

He really hated having his sexual advances rebuffed. "Your doctor said that too much strain isn't good for you!" was the response. Meanwhile, he could hear the other three fucking and sucking into all hours of the night.

On a follow-up visit to his doctor, he was asked, "Do you have any concerns or questions about your progress so far?"

"When can I have sex?" he blurted. The doctor seemed caught off-guard. "I'm a man with a husband and two boyfriends. I have a very active libido and am used to having sex several times a day. I haven't gotten laid since before the attack and I'm dying here!"

The doctor's eyes widened further. "Uh… I don't see why not," he said as he examined the wounds that peppered the man's chest. "Everything's healing well. Your physical therapy is coming along. Do you have any tightness in your abdomen?"

"Not anymore. I still sometimes have shooting pains deep inside the wounds," Peter confessed.

"That's actually to be expected. You'll probably have those for the rest of your life. There was nerve damage from the knives, so sometimes the signals get a little mixed up. If they don't pass after a few moments, take some Advil or something for the pain," the doctor replied as he pressed down on the wounds. "Any discomfort when I do this?"

"No," Peter replied. It felt far too good to have a man touching his belly. He had to concentrate not to get an erection.

"Alright," the doctor said. "I'd like to still see you at least once a month and as for the sex, just try not to over-exert yourself, but other than that, have as much fun as you want."

"One last request, Doc, I swear. Can you write that on a piece of prescription paper?"

Peter was giddy when he got home. He could barely contain himself as he waited for his husband and boyfriends to arrive home. The three of them got home at the same time—much earlier than anticipated—and found Peter sitting at the kitchen table in just his jeans.

"What's going on?" Chris asked. "You didn't respond to any of our texts. We were worried!"

Peter slapped the paper his doctor gave him on the table. Derek picked it up and read it out loud. "Non-strenuous sexual activity at least once per day, or more frequently as needed."

Chris rolled his eyes. "You made us all leave work early because your doctor wrote a prescription for us to fuck you?"

"I mean, it's doctor's orders, Chris," Peter said. "It's an important part of my healing process. So, yeah, I want all of you to fuck me."

"Like… top you?" Stiles elaborated, his brows furrowed in confusion. To his knowledge Peter didn't bottom. Except that one time Chris mentioned from before they were married.

Chris was staring at Peter with an expression that was hard to read. That was _their_ thing.

"If Chris is alright with it, yeah," Peter said. "Now that my relationship with Derek is out in the open so-to-speak… And Stiles, you and I have been together for a long time if we don't count that year and a half of my fuck-up. And maybe it's time for us to go that extra step." He looked at Derek and Stiles. "I'm not going to become the power bottom that you two are… but I'd like to share that part of myself with you."

Chris gave a subtle nod, indicating he was okay with sharing this part of his husband with their boyfriends.

* * *

Chris made love to Peter in a slow, methodical fashion. One that had been perfected by twenty-two years of marriage and undying love for one another. It wasn't the lustful, animalistic sex that the four of them usually shared. It was passionate and emotional. It reminded Derek of the way he and Stiles made love for the first time: caring and sweet, completely in-tune with one another's bodies.

For Chris, it was an expression of his gratitude that Peter had survived. Peter was his best friend, his soulmate. He honestly didn't know what he would do if he lost Peter. Peter felt the same way. Certainly they would have Derek and Stiles… but for the older two men, living without the other could barely constitute anything remotely resembling life.

What Derek and Stiles were watching wasn't "fucking." It wasn't lustful or gratuitous. It was the purest, most eloquent declaration of love that could be shared between two people.

Peter and Chris were lost in their actions, their mouths and hands exploring each other's. It was all familiar territory, but there was comfort in the familiarity. The orgasm that Chris coaxed from Peter was one of deliberately increasing intensity. Everything else in the universe disappeared. It was beautiful to behold. Both younger men realized they were crying. They knew they had witnessed an act of divinity.

Peter and Chris shared a deep kiss as they came down from their shared ecstasy. They looked over at Stiles and Derek, having forgotten they were there. "Beat that," Chris said with a coy smirk as he slowly pulled out of his husband.

Derek went next, climbing up between his uncle's legs, kissing up his scarred belly and swallowing the semen that Peter shot onto himself. Derek lined himself up with Peter. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"Come on," Peter said, pushing himself down so that his freshly-fucked hole swallowed the tip of Derek's cock, eliciting a sharp gasp. He pushed slowly in. Peter was hot and wet. He gripped Derek's length like a velvety-soft vice. He made love to the man he had admired and idolized his entire life. He pumped slowly into the uncle he had wished to marry when he was eight… the uncle whose name he filled notebooks with… the reason he played basketball at all. He made love to the uncle who had brought him to transcendental bliss in this very same bed only months ago. He stared into his uncle's eyes as each purposeful thrust rubbed Peter's prostate. Derek reached down and stroked his uncle as his orgasm approached far quicker than he wished it. He shot his emission into his uncle, adding it to Chris'.

He pulled out and was quickly replaced by Stiles who, at Peter's urging, took a slightly faster pace than the other two. Derek replaced the hand gripping his uncle's huge cock with his mouth, ready to swallow the next orgasm that came from it. Chris got up and moved behind Stiles, abruptly sheathing his entire length into the boy in one go. Stiles yelped at the unanticipated intrusion, but ultimately moaned.

Chris' rapid thrusts into Stiles forced his rhythm to alternate in a way that Peter loved. His eyes lolled back and his fingers grabbed Derek's thick hair, fucking his nephew's mouth on his cock.

Peter didn't believe in Heaven… but if he did, he was certain that it was this very sensation he felt. It made him wonder why he hadn't let Stiles and Derek top him sooner. They were incredibly skilled at it.

Peter came first, forcing his cock into his nephew's throat as he pumped his seed straight down the boy's gullet. The contractions of his muscles finally brought Stiles to his own orgasm, which then triggered Chris.

When Stiles and Chris both pulled out of the respective holes they'd been occupying, Derek sprang into action, taking Peter's powerful legs and pulling him further down the bed, almost to the edge. He let his uncle's legs rest comfortably against his hands as he pressed himself into the exposed crevasse. He ran his tongue up the full length of it before allowing it to sink into his uncle's wet hole. He tasted them. The heady, nutty, salty, sweet flavor of their come. He needed more. He dug as far in as he possibly could, probing his uncle with his tongue.

"Fuck! Derek, that feels so good," Peter moaned.

Derek continued his task until his cock grew hard once more. He turned Peter over and entered him. This time he fucked his uncle with more gusto, pulling his torso up and kissing him from behind. As he thrust into Peter with a more staccato rhythm, Stiles got onto all fours in front of him and backed himself onto Peter. Feeling Peter inside him was as natural to him as breathing.

Peter grunted and moaned. He tossed his head back and reached behind him, gripping Derek's firm ass cheeks, encouraging him further. "I've never been so certain that you're a Hale as I am now," he chuckled. He then moved his hands to Stiles' hips and used them as leverage to pull the boy's ass up and down on his dick. "And you, my love," he said, addressing the boy. "By this point you must be a Hale by injection."

They went through every possible permutation of their bodies, finally exhausting themselves with Chris inside Stiles, whose cock filled Peter. Derek's ass was massaging Peter's cock as they all laid on their sides. "Can we sleep like this every night?" Stiles asked. "I could really get used to it."

"I'm pretty sure that prescription came with unlimited refills," Peter chuckled.

"And I'm pretty sure I fucked out any energy I had," Chris said as he pulled the blanket over their four naked figures. He pulled out of Stiles just long enough to turn off the light. After climbing back into bed and pushing back into his young boyfriend, he bade the rest of them goodnight.

* * *

The next morning, Stiles carefully got up from the bed, doing his best not to disturb the other three. After showering and pulling on some pajama bottoms, he headed down to the kitchen and started a fresh pot of coffee. His messenger bag hung from the chair where he'd left it the night before. As he waited for the coffee to brew, he reached into the bag and pulled out a small package. It had been in the messenger bag for quite some time, now, weighing heavily on him, despite its small size and light weight.

Stirred by the smell of java, Derek lumbered downstairs, his hair completely mussed. He'd managed to find a pair of Peter's underwear and pulled them on. Stiles smiled at him as he approached and kissed him. "Good morning," he said softly.

"Morning," Derek replied groggily.

Stiles fixed two cups of coffee, knowing exactly how Derek preferred his. They headed out to their back patio and sat next to one another on a lounge chair. The pool had been covered for the oncoming winter and the air was brisk against their mostly-naked skin, but the coffee helped to warm them.

Once they both had finished their cups, Derek finally spoke. "What's that you've got there?" Derek asked, indicating the small brown package that Stiles had been fumbling with.

"What?" Stiles asked, caught off guard. "Oh... it's just... it's something I've had for a while. Never got around to doing anything with it."

"Did your dad send it to you?"

Stiles shook his head as he tore at the packaging. He didn't know if he wanted to do this now. 

"Babe, are you alright?" Derek asked. "You seem upset."

"Just scared," Stiles admitted.

"They caught the attacker... we're safe now," Derek said, putting his arm around his boyfriend.

"No, it isn't that," he said as a lump appeared in his throat. "You know that feeling when you're on a rollercoaster and you've reached the top of the incline. You can see the tracks in front of you. You know you're going to be fine... You know you're safe, but your stomach still fills with butterflies because what you're about to do is scary?"

"You're worrying me, Stiles," Derek said softly.

Stiles finally opened the small package, revealing a tiny box. He drew a deep, icy breath before turning to Derek and opening the box. Derek inhaled sharply when he saw what it was. Stiles delicately picked it up and held it out to Derek. "The relationship we have is weird. We're four people who love one another unconditionally, and I know your first choice for marriage was Peter... but I was hoping that maybe I could be runner up since he's taken and it doesn't look like they're gonna divorce any time soon. And I just fucked this whole thing up because I'm a moron but I want to marry you, Derek. I want to stand in front of anyone who will listen and shout to the world that I love you. I love every single thing about you and that's never going to change, and if you could forgive the fact that this is the worst proposal ever and—"

Derek took the ring from Stiles' hand and placed it on his finger, then kissed Stiles tenderly, breathlessly. "You aren't the runner up, Stiles," Derek said when the kiss broke. "You never were. I'll make sure I work every single day to be worthy of being called your husband."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this installment of the series. It was a tough one to write, but I would appreciate your feedback! There will probably be one more installment to wrap the series up completely.


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